1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the detection and analysis of pressure data for automotive seating and other body support systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The performance of automotive seating and body support systems depends in part on how much pressure and pressure gradients are experienced by different parts of the body. In order to assess support surfaces and compare performance differences due to design changes and material selection, there are industry standard ways to quantify surface pressure information.
A simple pressure map of a seating surface typically provides insufficient information to visualize and standardize the assessment of the impact of pressures on the human body. A more advanced approach is to divide the automotive seating, for example, seat and backrest, into different zones and calculate pressure or other physical measurements for each zone. These zones may be mapped onto a human body model in order to assess the impact of seating pressures, and other metrics, on the body.
In order to accurately map pressure and other physical measurements onto the human body model, the pressure measurements and seating zones should be aligned to the human body model. However, manually separating the pressure map data into seating zones and mapping those against the human body model is a lengthy process that is prone to error.
Therefore there is a need to automate the measurement and alignment of seating features, pressure measurements and human body models.